In the past few years there has been a large increased use of the automatic teller machine (ATM), which functions to process automatically bank transactions under computer control. These machines are usually mounted in the outer walls of banks. They provide twenty-four hour service to bank customers by allowing customers to engage in transactions, such as the deposit or withdrawal of funds, without entry into the bank or the need for the services of bank tellers.
When the ATM is mounted in the outer walls of banks, customers have access from the sidewalk and the bank employees have access to the rear of the ATM from the interior of the bank for servicing and maintenance. A locked door in the rear of the machine provides access into the cash box for replacement of the cash that is withdrawn by customers. Bank employees, within the security area of the bank itself, handle large amounts of cash to replenish the machines.
The situation is quite different for ATM's located on islands outside the bank for automatic drive-through banking. The security requirements are much more severe with respect to ATM's mounted on exterior islands versus through-mounted ones in the walls of building. The enclosures must be made strong enough to make intrusion difficult; employees carrying large amounts of cash must have minimal outside exposure, and must get into the enclosure rapidly and must be secure while they are servicing or maintaining the machine.
Prior art enclosures for transaction machines are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,527 to Williams and U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,523 and 4,348,966 to Hastings.
An additional problem arises because the islands initially built for drive-through teller banking are generally narrow in width (e.g., about 4 feet and often even as little as about 3 feet) and the enclosures which are mounted on them must be similarly compact. Additionally, minimizing the width of the islands reduces the outside land requirements for a given number of enclosures and their machines, or allows more enclosures and machines to be installed in a given area.
Accordingly, it is among the objects of this invention to provide a new and improved system for drive-through automatic tellering that is highly secure and economically minimizes enclosure dimension requirements.
Another object of this invention is to provide new and improved apparatus for turning an ATM in an enclosure for servicing and maintenance which minimizes the required enclosure width.
Another object is to provide, for turning an ATM within its enclosure and for attaining the object of the immediately-preceding paragraph, improved apparatus employing a jackscrew operating mechanism that is operable to cause the carrier for the ATM to rotate in such a way that the axis of rotation of the ATM moves with respect to both the carrier and the enclosure during turning of the ATM.
Another object is to provide a jackscrew operating mechanism capable of turning the ATM from its normal-operating position to its service-access position within an enclosure of near-minimum width and also capable of positioning the ATM during the final portion of such turning in a position where it effectively closes off the window in the enclosure that was occupied by the ATM when it was in its normal-operating position.
Another object is to provide a new and improved ATM turning apparatus in an enclosure that is highly secure during operation of the ATM by customers and during servicing and maintenance of the ATM by employees.
A further object is to provide a highly secure, minimum width enclosure with rapid entrance and egress and minimum outside exposure time to ATM servicing employees handling large amounts of cash.
Another object is to provide a highly secure, minimum-width enclosure with a powered automatic apparatus to rapidly turn the ATM to its servicing and maintenance position and back to its normal operating position.